A multicast content delivery system can use both multicast and unicast streams to efficiently use available bandwidth to deliver content. Available multicast content can be identified to gateways serving consumption devices, and the gateways can receive requests for unicast content deliver, but honor the requests with multicast group sessions.
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1. A method comprising: receiving, by a first computing device and from a second computing device, a first request for content, the first request comprising a multicast source address field and a multicast group identifier field; determining whether the content is already being sent by the first computing device via a logical connection; determining, using the multicast group identifier field and after determining that the content is not already being sent by the first computing device via the logical connection, a bitrate of the content; determining a capacity of the first computing device; after determining that the capacity is large enough to support the bitrate: establishing the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device, and requesting the content; informing, by the first computing device, the second computing device of where to find the logical connection and how to decrypt the logical connection; and sending, by the first computing device and via the logical connection, the content.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request comprises an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multicast source and a group identifier.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, from a third computing device, a second request for the content; and informing the third computing device to use the logical connection for receiving the content.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first computing device comprises a termination system (TS), the second computing device comprises a gateway device, and the third computing device comprises a different gateway device.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the first request comprises receiving, by the first computing device, the first request as a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM) message.
6. A first computing device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first computing device to: receive, from a second computing device, a first request for content, the first request comprising a multicast source address field and a multicast group identifier field; determine whether the content is already being sent by the first computing device via a logical connection; determine, using the multicast group identifier field and after determining that the content is not already being sent by the first computing device via the logical connection, a bitrate of the content; determining a capacity of the first computing device; after determining that the capacity is large enough to support the bitrate: establish the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device, and request the content; inform the second computing device of where to find the logical connection and how to decrypt the logical connection; and send, via the logical connection, the content.
7. The first computing device of claim 6 , wherein the first request comprises an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multicast source and a group identifier.
8. The first computing device of claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first computing device to: receive, from a third computing device, a second request for the content; and inform the third computing device to use the logical connection for receiving the content.
9. The first computing device of claim 8 , wherein the first computing device comprises a termination system (TS), the second computing device comprises a gateway device, and the third computing device comprises a different gateway device.
10. The first computing device of claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first computing device to receive the first request by receiving the first request as a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM) message.
11. A system comprising: a first computing device and a second computing device, wherein the first computing device comprises: one or more processors; and memory storing first instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the first computing device, cause the first computing device to: receive, from the second computing device, a first request for content, the first request comprising a multicast source address field and a multicast group identifier field; determine whether the content is already being sent via a logical connection; determine, using the multicast group identifier field and after determining that the content is not already being sent via the logical connection, a bitrate of the content; determining a capacity of the first computing device; after determining that the capacity is large enough to support the bitrate: establish the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device, and request the content; and wherein the second computing device comprises: one or more processors; and memory storing second instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the second computing device, cause the second computing device to: receive an indication of where to find the logical connection and how to decrypt the logical connection; and access, via the logical connection, the content.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first request comprises an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multicast source and a group identifier.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the first computing device, further cause the first computing device to: receive, from a third computing device, a second request for the content; and inform the third computing device to use the logical connection for receiving the content.
14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first computing device comprises a termination system (TS), the second computing device comprises a gateway device, and the third computing device comprises a different gateway device.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the first computing device, further cause the first computing device to: receive the first request by receiving the first request as a PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM) message.
16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the first computing device, further cause the first computing device to: send, after determining that the capacity is not large enough to support the bitrate and to the second computing device, an indication indicating that the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device will not be established.
17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first instructions, when executed by the one or more processors of the first computing device, further cause the first computing device to: receive, by the first computing device and from the second computing device, a request for second content, the request for the second content comprising a second multicast source address field and a second multicast group identifier field; inform, after determining that the second content is already being sent by the first computing device via the logical connection, the second computing device of where to find the logical connection and how to decrypt the logical connection; and send, via the logical connection, the second content.
18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending, after determining that the capacity is not large enough to support the bitrate and to the second computing device, an indication indicating that the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device will not be established.
19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, by the first computing device and from the second computing device, a request for second content, the request for the second content comprising a second multicast source address field and a second multicast group identifier field; informing, after determining that the second content is already being sent by the first computing device via the logical connection, the second computing device of where to find the logical connection and how to decrypt the logical connection; and sending, via the logical connection, the second content.
20. The first computing device of claim 6 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the first computing device to: send, after determining that the capacity is not large enough to support the bitrate and to the second computing device, an indication indicating that the logical connection between the first computing device and the second computing device will not be established.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
May 24, 2017
June 18, 2019
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